Jack Park, a leading Ohio State football historian, checks in each week during the college football season with a retrospective about the Buckeyes.

After joining the Big Ten Conference in 1913, Ohio State captured its first league championship in 1916 with an overall record of 7-0. One of the season’s big challenges came against powerful Wisconsin, one of the Big Ten’s founding members in 1896. The Buckeyes entered the game having lost their past three matchups against the Badgers.

Ohio State coach John Wilce, a Wisconsin graduate, had drilled his players until dark each evening in preparation for the Nov. 4 contest. At a wild pep rally on Friday evening, attended by more than 2,000 students and fans, Wilce seemed very confident about his team’s chances.

On a beautiful homecoming afternoon, an Ohio Field crowd of 12,500 was at the time the largest ever to see a football game in the state of Ohio, surpassing the record of 8,200 for the Ohio State-Michigan game in 1902. Numerous mail requests for tickets had been returned unfilled, and scalpers were getting between $5 and $7 for $2 seats.

Ohio State entered the game at 3-0; Wisconsin at 4-0. The Badgers had outscored their opponents 91-10.

Wisconsin refused to wear numbered jerseys, so Wilce likewise had his players dressed in uniforms without numbers.

It was the Badgers' first road game of the season, and Wisconsin coach Paul Withington apparently greatly underestimated Ohio State’s strength. Instead of accompanying his team to Columbus, Withington put assistant Ed Soucy in command while Withington traveled to Minneapolis to scout the Minnesota-Illinois game, which featured two strong teams that the Badgers would face later in the month. Withington's absence might have had a psychological effect on the Wisconsin players, who appeared to be overconfident.

Early in the second quarter the Badgers drove 47 yards for the game's first touchdown, which came on a pass from Eber Simpson to captain Paulie Meyers. Simpson's conversion gave Wisconsin a 7-0 lead.

The Buckeyes came right back on their next possession to tie the score, with halfback Chic Harley scoring on the type of run that would soon make him a legend.

With the ball at the Badgers 27-yard line, Harley darted around right end and found a small hole after barely getting past the line of scrimmage. He then made a sharp turn to his left, headed for the far corner of the end zone, then veered to his right and crossed the goal line directly under the goal post. Harley kicked the extra point to tie the score at halftime.

The Buckeyes dominated play in a scoreless third quarter, including leading in first downs 5-1. In the decisive fourth quarter, Harley made one of his more celebrated runs.

Fielding a punt at his 20, he headed diagonally toward the east sideline and, after picking-up a key block from end "Shifty" Bolen, sped 80 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. Harley's conversion was his 14th point of the afternoon, and Ohio State had taken the lead for the first time with just 8 minutes remaining.

The Badgers answered. Taking over at the OSU 47, they methodically drove for their second TD. However, the critical conversion attempt was unsuccessful, leaving the score at 14-13.

Time expired after OSU ran two plays, and the Buckeyes had accomplished their biggest victory in their first 27 years of intercollegiate football. The electrifying victory brought national attention to the football program that was emerging in Columbus.

Harley was carried from the field on the shoulders of exuberant students who swarmed onto the field by the thousands.

Wilce especially praised the sterling defensive play of guard Charlie Seddon, a 5-foot-7 150-pounder who had started his very first game. Seddon went on to become an excellent lineman, affectionately known as Ohio State’s "watch charm" guard.